By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GettyImages.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games came to a close on Sunday evening, honoring the para athletes who amazed audiences with their remarkable performances over the past 11 days.
Twenty-four artists from the French electronic music scene led a party atmosphere despite heavy rain at the Stade de France in front of 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations.
Chief Paris 2024 organiser Tony Estanguet said the Games and the Olympics had created a “historic summer”.
The former Olympic canoeist Estanguet added “France had a date with history, and the country showed up” and said 2024 will be “etched in people’s memories”.
The International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons said France set a “benchmark” for future Games.
“For a country famous for its fashion and its food, France is now famous for its fans,” he said.
Bronze medallist Pieter du Preez was South Africa’s flagbearer for the ceremony, which closed the 11-day contest.
Du Preez, a gold medallist in the H1 time-trial in Tokyo, finished third to win bronze in Paris 2024.
He is one of the legends of South African sport and has the honour of carrying his country’s flag at the closing ceremony. Team SA finished their programme with six medals – two gold and four bronze medals.
The H1 category in para-cycling is for athletes with highly affected movement in the trunk, legs and hands.
The C6 quadriplegic finished sixth at the 2012 London Games in the 400-meter wheelchair track racing and won a gold medal in the para-cycling at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, which were moved to 2021 due to COVID-19.
Du Preez scooped a gold medal in the time trial at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and is the current defending champion with his rainbow jersey tally at six in the individual time trial.
The only Team SA competitor in action on the final day was T11 marathoner Louzanne Coetzee. A bronze medallist in the event in Tokyo, she had already won bronze in the 1500m in Paris, but was unable to repeat the feat on Sunday morning, with her guide Claus Kempen, finishing out of the medals in a race won by Moroccan Fatima El Idrissi in a world record 2hr 48min 36sec.